Ancient and beautiful. I was looking forward to snorkeling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef, but Cyclone Steve had just ripped through the area and underwater conditions were horrible.



Here's the boat I took out to the reef.



The colors from the surface were awesome.
(photo by Rocha)



That's me.



This is what we were *supposed* to see. But all I saw was a fucking sea cucumber and a few non-descript fish.
(photo from a postcard)



Here's a fishie near the boat.



And here's the certificate I received for my efforts.

From: Jeff Nyveen To: my friends and family Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 04:28:28 -0400 Subject: I'm Outta Here! Diving on the Great Barrier Reef was crap. It took an hour and a half to boat out there (I think it was called Hastings Reef). The water was very choppy, and when we went under, it was very cloudy. The coral and fish we *did* see were pretty unspectacular. And we were only down there for about 25 minutes. My ears were killing me all the way down. Apparently, I'm still a little stuffed up from the head cold I had a few weeks ago. At the second dive site, I snorkeled for a few minutes before I got fed up with the choppy water. On the way back, the sun came out, and my poor nose got burnt again. The sun was out all day today, and it was beautiful. I should have expected the weather to improve as soon as I bought my plane ticket out of here. Went to the food court and had a KFC value meal for lunch. A very tall, very skinny, very gay guy offered me a place to sit with him. Apparently, the homosexual appeal is international. Tonight, I'm off to the Wool Shed to say goodbye to everyone I have met and traveled with up the coast. Tomorrow I fly to Darwin and begin the second leg of my journey around Australia. From Darwin, I'll be hopping on the Oz Experience bus down to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, then down to Adelaide and Melbourne. No Regrets. Jeff

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